Children evacuated from Thailand without parents stay with relatives

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Evacuation flights from Thailand brought 21 Finnish children back home without a mother or father. The parents probably died in the tsunami that hit South Asia last month.
      The children are currently staying with family members.
      Workers at the Vantaa crisis centre at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport received a number of children who arrived with adults who were not their own parents.
      The crisis centre also received four Swedish children who have since moved on to Sweden.
     
The Finnish children with missing parents range in age from 5 to 15.
      "Each child was met at the airport by a close relative - a grandparent, or an uncle or aunt", says Sirpa Lamminen, the head social worker at the Vantaa crisis centre.
      "The best way to help in that situation is to find a close relative so that the child will feel safe."
      The crisis centre reported the situation to the social welfare authorities of the home municipalities of each of the children.
     
The government is taking measures to provide long-term support for children orphaned in the disaster.
      Markku Helin of the Ministry of Justice says that the children can also be assigned a guardian even if the parents have not been officially declared dead.
      "If the situation is such that a close relative of a child offers to serve as guardian, this can be arranged."
      "Especially now that the parents are very likely to have perished, it could well be in the child's best interest not to implement any temporary measures."
     
The children need to recover from both their traumatic experiences and the loss of one or two parents.
      "Now the children are unable to deal with the traumatic experience with the help of their parents. In addition to that, the parent is not coming back. It is the worst possible situation", says child psychotherapist Mirjam Kalland of the University of Helsinki.
      "The only mitigating aspect is that this was a natural disaster. The children have not lost their faith in humanity, as they might have if the parent had died violently."
      Kalland says that the children need permanent homes and someone who will say to them: "From now on I will take care of you." It is also important for the children to get back to normal everyday life as soon as possible.
      Orphaned children can appear cheerful and happy, but it does not mean that they are not grieving.
      "It can take a year before a child becomes so securely attached to the new family that he or she will begin working through the experience", Kalland says.
     
A child can avoid talking about lost parents because the subject makes people around them sad.
      "Close relatives have plenty of work going through their own emotions. I recommend that those taking care of such children seek outside help in working with them", Kalland says.
      She adds that there might not be a need for professional help if the new home is secure enough. However, if the child does not eventually deal with the grief, he or she might need therapy. With smaller children, the issues can often be dealt with through stories.
      Help is also necessary if the traumatic experience is followed by restlessness, inability to concentrate, nightmares, or aggressiveness.
     
"It is important to allow young people to forget and to enjoy life. Children have their lives ahead of them. The grief of an adult who has lost his or her family is different by nature", Kalland says.
      "In spite of losing the parents, children, even small children, keep an internal experience of having parents. If they have been cared for well, and the child gets into a secure family, the child will probably grow up to be an adult with an unbroken spirit."


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Mourning of catastrophe victims begins in schools and workplaces (4.1.2004)

Helsingin Sanomat